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| Links: Back to the delegation fleet |
THE AUTHOR SPEAKS: THE ARK ROYAL
The UK's delegation ship was originally going to be the HMSS Raptor, for no other reason than that I like the word, it has a certain predatory ring to it and it's a subtle pun on "Bird of Prey".
(In Star Trek, a Klingon Bird of Prey has the range and fighting power of a Federation starship; is nippy and manoeuvrable; and yet is a fraction of the size. So, why does the Federation insist on lumbering around the Alpha quadrant in massive great starships that constantly get their asses whipped by these smaller, better ships? I feel a Star Trek rant coming on ... but not here.) But then, out of the blue, it occurred to me that Ark Royal has a far finer ring to it — and very well might be the name the United Kingdom gives its first starship, in the unlikely event of such a thing ever coming to pass. After all, I'd already decided the American ship would be called Enterprise, with a similar sort of logic. Ark Royal is an historical name with a fine pedigree. And changing the name had the added advantage of pushing up the word count slightly. Ark Royal's landing boat, Sharman, is of course named after the first Brit in space — Helen Sharman.
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